Day 14

Woke up and waited for the rain to stop so I could call the fam during family night. Had a good conversation and skipped training because I wanted to take it easy on my elbow. I stopped at a little restaurant and had some pad thai, it wasn't as good as the street vendor's that I like. I was right by the Wat Chalong temple and it wasn't raining so I walked around there and took some pictures for a little while. It is a huge Buddhist temple really close to the camp. It seems like a big tourist destination for both Thai and Farangs. There were a couple different groups of school kids touring while I was there. I headed back to camp to get the card of this acupuncturist in Kata from Dan. Will referred him and he is supposed to be really good. Aussie Adam also knew of a good massage place in Kata and wanted to get something to eat so we hit the road.

We tried to take a shortcut and realized that our road was heading up. We both had full tanks of gas and decided to follow the road just to see how far up the mountain it went. (I'm not sure the elevation but in West Texas it would definitely be called a mountain.) The road was just dirt and gravel and pretty eroded but it was a fun ride on the choppers. It was cloudy and a little misty and there were some great views along the way. Sometimes we could see the pier by Jimmy's Lighthouse (our side of the island) and sometimes we could see Kata and the other side of the island. I stopped to take some pictures but they won't do it justice. We got to the top and found a giant golden Buddha and construction of a new temple. I had seen this from the ground but it was too small to be able to tell what it was. Great view from the top. We headed back down and at one point I looked up and above the trees I could see the ocean and it seemed to go on forever. It was a weird angle I guess and a little disorienting.

We got to Kata and had some lunch at a place near the beach. They brought out Connect Four after we ordered which was flippin' sweet. Most of the restaurants here have the food ready pretty quick and we only had time for one game. I had fried rice with shrimp and calamari served in a hollowed out pineapple with fruits and veggies around the side. Dessert was a big fruit dish again, this time with papaya as well. The acupuncturist's card had no address so we asked some people at the restaurant and they had no idea. We tried calling the number but couldn't get through. We drove around a bit and couldn't find it so we went ahead to get the massages first. It was 300 baht for an hour of hot oil massage so that was really relaxing. We both had some tender spots after a few days of training and it was good to get them worked out. Adam said he proposed to his wife here a couple years ago. He rented a speed boat and they spent the day snorkeling around the islands and then ate at a private restaurant. I presume he rented the place out b/c he said they were the only patrons. Then they went to a secluded island that you can only get to twice a day b/c of the tides. He said they were the only ones on the island and that's where he proposed. He had tipped the staff at their resort to put rose pedals around the room but when they got back they had made a heart and written 'Love' in rose pedals on the bed.

Nobody at the massage place knew how to get to the acupuncturist either. Adam had to get going so I hit an internet café and found the address and went to try and find it yet again. Turns out we had driven right by it twice but it was on an out of the way side street. Well, nobody was there and it was locked up so I headed back to camp. By this point its raining again and surprisingly cool on the way home. I skipped afternoon training to take it easy on the elbow and pretty much just read, wrote, chilled in the bungalow and made it an early night.